Adam Howard: [00:00:00] This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm Adam Howard, sitting in today for David Remnick. Fred Armisen has a thing about sound. You might have heard his bit where he claims to be able to imitate every accent in American speech. 

Fred Armisen: Pittsburgh, yinz go there. Yinz go there to Pittsburgh. And then, uh, down to Baltimore, uh, motor oil.

M- I always think motor oil, Baltimore, motor oil. Then down to Virginia. Virginia's got- 

Adam Howard: And on Saturday Night Live, he co-wrote the recurring sketch about how people talk in Los Angeles. 

Fred Armisen: Get back on San Vicente, take it to the 10, then switch over to the 405 north and let it dump you out into Mulholland where you belong.

Adam Howard: Armisen even made an album called 100 Sound Effects. The track titles are like little punchlines. Glass Falls But Doesn't Break. Music Store Around Christmas.

Last summer, The New Yorker's [00:01:00] Michael Schulman met up with Fred Armisen, and they went out to do some sound recording of their own on the summer streets of New York. 

Michael Schulman: Well, hi. Um- Hi. So I played this album for myself and my cat- 

Fred Armisen: Mm-hmm ... 

Michael Schulman: last night. Mm-hmm. Um, she was confused. 

Fred Armisen: Uh-huh. 

Michael Schulman: There are no birds on it, I don't think, so she was not that interested.

Fred Armisen: That'd have to be a separate album- 

Michael Schulman: Mm ... 

Fred Armisen: for animals, 'cause they, they're a different audience 

Michael Schulman: Okay, so let's start with the basics. Like, what is this thing and how did you come to do it, 100 Sound Effects? 

Fred Armisen: It was kind of like I was lamenting that there aren't sound effects albums in our lives as much, or in my life.

I feel like they just used to exist more, or they were more present. Like, there'd be, like, a Halloween one. You, they would just- you just, just would see them everywhere. It was like, the thought, I was like, "Oh, I should make one." Just, like, the titles of the, the ones that used to exist were always, like, you know, [00:02:00] door closing, you know, uh, there would be, like, some street sounds, sirens, like, airplane sounds and stuff.

So it was just from that. I was like, "Well, what would a new version of it be like?" And instead of just, you know, taking out my phone and just recording stuff, I wanted to treat it properly. Like, let me go to a recording studio and really do it. Let me try to mimic some things that I've heard before. And it really kind of took about a year of booking more time at a studio, and then a few things out on the street, but it was mostly studio stuff.

Michael Schulman: Well, well, when you picture people listening to this album, what do you picture? Are people, like, sitting and listening, uh, very intently, or is it background noise, or is it- 

Fred Armisen: I picture someone... In reality, I picture someone playing it for their friend. 

Michael Schulman: Oh, that's 

Fred Armisen: fun. Like, it's more like, "Hey, look what just came out."

And so not going through the whole thing, but just playing little parts of it- Mm ... you know? And then it [00:03:00] looks good in the record collection. So it's, like, not in the music section. It's like, "Oh, then here's a sound effects record that actually came out more recently." 

Michael Schulman: Right. Well, I mean, it's like a novelty item.

Fred Armisen: Kind of. 

Michael Schulman: But also maybe practical. 

Fred Armisen: That would be a dream. 

Michael Schulman: I mean, you mentioned h- the sort of classic sound effects albums- 

Fred Armisen: Yeah ... 

Michael Schulman: that you used to see. Do- would, did you, like, own them growing up? Did you own these at all? 

Fred Armisen: Just cur- O- only, only Halloween ones. I remember ghoul sounds, you know?

And I guess they'd be used for, you know, haunted mansion amusement, you know- Mm-hmm ... like, during Halloween. Oh, actually, I had a G.I. Joe single. The, the toy G.I. Joes. Yeah. And I think th- those were heavy on sound effects. And they weren't advertised that way, but there was a lot of, like, crawling through the dirt kind of stuff.

Michael Schulman: War sounds for toys. Or 

Fred Armisen: a- adventure sounds. 

Michael Schulman: Oh, yeah, yeah. "I 

Fred Armisen: gotta grab this rock. [00:04:00] Almost. Got it." And that kind of thing.

Michael Schulman: Wow, it is a lost, uh, art form 

Fred Armisen: truly. Yeah, 

Michael Schulman: yeah. Um, So the, the, the sounds are subdivided. Uh, d- d- was that where you started, kind of like thinking about different scenarios in life, like a plane or a- 

Fred Armisen: Yes ... 

Michael Schulman: music store, stuff like that? 

Fred Armisen: Yeah. Like, I started with all the music stuff, because, like, that's easy. I wanted to do someone tuning a guitar, and it's in tune except for when they strum it, it's out of tune.

That happens sometimes to guitar players, where like, "I just tuned it. Why is it still out of tune?" 

Michael Schulman: Okay. Well, let's, let's pl- let's hear that one.[00:05:00] 

Fred Armisen: Yeah, it's just something that happened. So it started there because those are easy to record. Mm-hmm. Just, you know, set up an amp and everything. So the music ones were just, it was a good starting point. 

Michael Schulman: Well, yeah. And you be- I think before you were in comedy, you were in, uh, a punk band. 

Fred Armisen: Yeah. 

Michael Schulman: Uh, a- a- and people know you're a drummer.

You were in um, Trenchmouth, a punk band, uh, starting in the '80s. So I imagine that you just lived a lot of your life around the sounds of bands who are doing their work? 

Fred Armisen: Yeah. I mean, there's, there's so much sound checking. So much of your life is just sound checks. 

Michael Schulman: Sorry, this is the sound of a New Yorker writer writing down what you're wearing.

Flannel shirt. 

Fred Armisen: And this sound is my reaction as I look down to my shirt. 

Michael Schulman: Black pants. Okay, I got it. Y- so i- i- you also did things out in the field. Can you tell me about sort of where you went out to record, uh, more organically? 

Fred Armisen: There [00:06:00] were... I, I'd spent some time in Ireland working, and there were sounds of parts of the kitchen, you know, the, the w- washing machine, the dryer, that to me sounded very European.

Michael Schulman: Oh, really? 

Fred Armisen: Like opening doors. Like, there's this different sound to even a front door. There's like a, it's like a lever, and it's like hardwood. So there's no way to recreate that. So with that, I used a, a portable recorder and just did, you know, front door opening, fob opening the f- building door. And then I recorded the washing machine and the dryer because I think their dryers are, they're, are just very different to ours.

Like, at, there's usually one unit that does the same thing. It's way at the end, I 

Michael Schulman: think. Oh, yeah. European small dryer with some confusion. 

Fred Armisen: Yeah. 

Michael Schulman: Okay, let's listen to that because now I'm really curious what this dryer sounds like[00:07:00] 

Oh, that's an interesting little beep thing. Yeah. 

Fred Armisen: Yeah. What does that mean? 

Michael Schulman: Well 

Fred Armisen: It's triangle 

Michael Schulman: That's you giving up? Like, what, what's going on? 

Fred Armisen: No, I... This really happened where, I mean, I was recreating it, but I couldn't figure out how to unlock it. 

Michael Schulman: Oh. 

Fred Armisen: I was like, "I, it says it's done. Why won't it open?" 

Michael Schulman: Huh.

Whoa, what was that? 

Fred Armisen: No idea. 

Michael Schulman: The dryer just making a vroom? 

Fred Armisen: No idea. And these thing, these are new machines. 

Michael Schulman: That is mysterious

Oh my God. That was like an alien landing. That's really unsettling. That's something I wouldn't be able to do in a studio. It's just so specific to being there that,

Fred Armisen: that things like that I had to do there. 

Michael Schulman: Uh, so you, uh, you grew up on Long Island. Uh, are there particular sounds that you associate [00:08:00] with, uh, where you grew up? 

Fred Armisen: Yeah, definitely. Um, uh, there were like a, a lot of like delis and pizza places, and opening those doors, there was a jingle usually- 

Michael Schulman: Mm, mm-hmm ... 

Fred Armisen: sound.

Um- 

Michael Schulman: You know, it's like how The Sopranos ends. 

Fred Armisen: Oh, that's right. 

Michael Schulman: S- spoiler alert. But like the last thing- It is. ... you see is Tony- I forgot about that ... looking up and the, the door jingles, right? Yeah. Do you, are, are you, are you t- in general like someone who is sensitive to sound- Oh, yeah ... more than other people, do you think?

I mean, do, do you always, are you always that aware of it? 

Fred Armisen: I can't compare myself to other people, but I would say that it's like a major part of my life and maybe my career in a way, that like what, you know, got me there is like more about sound, uh, and the sound of an accent. 

Michael Schulman: Mm-hmm. W- like which chicken and egg is it?

Is it, do you think that you were [00:09:00] sensitive to noises and that g- got you interested in listening to how accents sound? Or was it- Yeah, 

Fred Armisen: definitely ... 

Michael Schulman: being a, a actor who had to do accents got you more sensitive to listening? 

Fred Armisen: No, no, no. It's, it's the first, it's the first version. Hmm. Um, my parents weren't Am- American.

Uh, they became American, but um, my, my dad's from Germany and my mom's from Venezuela, and we lived in Brazil for a little while. So there was a lot of sort of relearning of how people talk, uh, especially moving to New York. Like, New York has a very specific way that, that people sound. So it was like it was easier to notice.

Because of my life, it was easier to notice that people sounded different. 

Michael Schulman: What were the sounds of Brazil? 

Fred Armisen: God, it was so different. First of all, a- as, as cliche as it might sound, the sound of the music in the streets, 'cause they had, um, samba schools. S- not educational schools, samba being like a school, meaning a group of [00:10:00] percussionists.

And we lived right near Copacabana Beach, and somewhere around December or so they'd start rehearsing. So that's one sound you would hear is like the sound of drums. Hmm.

TV sounded really different. And the Brazilian kids, so we spoke English and we went to an American school. 

Michael Schulman: How old were you when you lived in Brazil? 

Fred Armisen: I was, like, seven and eight or something. Uh-huh. But the kids, not in a mean way, would make fun of kids who spoke English, the Br- Brazilian kids, and they would mimic us.

And so we'd be talking, and they'd be like, they would say, like, "Tra-la-bar-tra-la-bar-stra-dur-da-dur-ba-la-grach. Bar-tra-bar-tra-bar." Like, that's, that was their version of what we sounded like. 

Michael Schulman: Huh. Right. 

Fred Armisen: And, um, yeah, it just, everything sounded different there. 

Michael Schulman: Um, what about, uh, SNL? Does SNL have particular sounds, um, like sets moving and stuff- Oh, my God

that, that stuck with [00:11:00] you? 

Fred Armisen: SNL has such a specific sound that it's what I picture most with the... 'Cause I love SNL. With the cold open. There's, like, this hiss right at the cold open. It's, I don't know, it's the sou- I don't know what it comes from, the mics being on or something. So you hear the audience giggle a little, but then there's this, like, "Whoosh."

And it's only SNL, where you're like, they're about to start the cold open. It's a, must be half a second, but there's a sound that's like, it begins this way. 

Michael Schulman: Right. Right. Well, uh, Fred, I'm hoping that we can, uh, head out and do some field work right now- Sure ... if, if you're up for that. You up for that? 

Fred Armisen: I'm up for it.

Michael Schulman: All right.

Fred Armisen: And sometimes elevator conversation sounds like this. New York is like almost too easy in that there's, there's so many sounds going on at the same time. But I think maybe we could do a good [00:12:00] job of, like, maybe finding some specifics. So we're in a deli, and this is the sound of a busy deli. So we're at an ATM.

We're getting the hitting of buttons and numbers. This is getting out cash. This is, um, looking through a cooler for a soda that isn't there, like a drink that you can't find. You're, you're going through. You're like, "Oh, they're out of whatever." Mm-hmm. Okay. So this is someone looking through it

We could do, uh, I found what I was looking for. Oh, yeah. Let's do that. But then- Let's do that. Okay. Okay. Okay. So that'll add, add a vocal quality to it. 

Michael Schulman: Okay. 

Fred Armisen: There we go. This is someone from Philadelphia and they're ordering crepes. 

Bystander: Hi. Hello. Can I just get, uh, the lemon crepe please? 

Fred Armisen: So we're going into a tunnel, one of those like sort of [00:13:00] overpass things in Central Park.

So what you hear is violin or fiddle player in the distance coming closer. So we're passing a fiddle player

Michael Schulman: Okay, so we're coming up on something very particular to Central Park South. Right. What do we have here? 

Fred Armisen: We've got a horse and carriage. Now, I don't wanna do anything to alarm the horse. 

Michael Schulman: No. 

Fred Armisen: But the horse is just being really quiet. 

Michael Schulman: Yeah. 

Fred Armisen: So there's... W- 

Michael Schulman: should we ask this guy? 

Fred Armisen: Let's ask him. We wanted to get a, a sound of a clop, but I don't wanna, uh, affect the horse.

Oh, that may be- Okay, okay. Yeah. Great. Sorry. It's okay, it's okay. 

Michael Schulman: Okay. It's all right. Uh, horse, do you have anything to say?

[00:14:00] Okay.

Fred Armisen: Okay. We'll leave him alone. A very quiet horse. Yeah. We have nothing from this horse. Let's see. Let's maybe wait here a moment- There's a guy 

Michael Schulman: petting 

Fred Armisen: his stomach ... in case, um- 

Michael Schulman: Sure ... 

Fred Armisen: uh, some horses do go by, 'cause now I'm dead set on it. 

Michael Schulman: Can we, uh, we're just getting some sound effects around New York. Do you, what, what about, uh, clopping his hoof?

Is that okay? He'll go by on his feet

Oh, yeah. What's that? Uh, no, that's all right. We don't wanna bother you. It's fine. I 

Fred Armisen: wonder if we could fake clopping sounds. Just as a sense of... Okay, it, it might fail, right? Like, it m- maybe we won't get it. Oh, 

Michael Schulman: oh, I have something. 

Fred Armisen: Yeah. Let's say that we had- Here, 

Michael Schulman: sunglasses 

Fred Armisen: case ... this is great. So let's say...

I'm gonna go on that wood over there. Let's say we had, like, a directive that we had to get clopping noises, that we're not allowed back unless we get something. 

Michael Schulman: Mm-hmm. 

Fred Armisen: So let's, um, fool our boss, so to speak.[00:15:00] 

Maybe I'll go slower That's pretty good. Could you- That's not bad, right? Could you layer it with a little like... Yeah. Or maybe, I have this other plastic Another four? Uh, that'll help. Yes. Is that another that's for this thing? Plastic piece? Yeah, is it- Yeah, yeah. But, okay. So let's start at the top. So this is horses clopping in Central Park, and I'll try to mimic that one

Michael Schulman: No, that was, that was amazing, 'cause right as you were doing that, we should note, an actual horse and carriage went by and you just mimicked the exact rhythm of what you were hearing. 

Fred Armisen: Yeah. 

Michael Schulman: Um, with a couple of glasses cases and equipment cases on this- Piece of wood ... wooden, wooden banister thing. You never [00:16:00] know.

Okay. Could be used a horse. The horse looked over 

Fred Armisen: like- Yeah. 

Michael Schulman: Like, "What is that?" The horse was like, "Is that my wife?" Or, 

Fred Armisen: or, or, "Are you making fun of me?" "Do you, do you think I'm a joke?"

Adam Howard: Comedian Fred Armisen talking with staff writer Michael Schulman last year. Armisen's album 100 Sound Effects came out on Drag City Records. I'm Adam Howard. This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. Thanks for listening. David Remnick will be back next week. 

Michael Schulman: Oh, should we, should we maybe just get this? Sure. This, this horse going by?

Excellent. Now we can compare. Yeah, we can compare how we did with your, the glasses case